Argent Tech Team

Ronald W. Schaefer

Owner, President; Director of Engineering Services Unit

Ron is a 26-year veteran of the USAF, former Squadron Commander, F-16 Fighter Pilot, F-4E, T-38, and T-37 Instructor Pilot with over 3500 hours total flight time. He is also a well established aerospace industry business developer. Key areas of pursuit include engineering services, studies and analysis, instructional systems design, information operations, technical applications of radio interoperability solutions, airfield management, unmanned aerial systems, human systems integration and homeland security solutions. He is also a subject matter expert in the field of instructional systems design and flight training and flight operations. He commanded the USAF’s only outsourced, contract flight training program and managed previous contracts for aerospace and defense consulting business with ARINC (Annapolis, MD), Spartan College (Tulsa, OK), I-3 (Huntsville, AL), and Lincoln Technical Institute (Orange, NJ), to identify and qualify government business opportunities and assist with writing proposals. Colonel Schaefer holds the requisite security clearances to facilitate performance on classified USG contracts. He holds a Masters of Aerospace Technology with a focus on cockpit design, human systems interface and instructional systems design. He speaks several languages, is a published artist, musician and writer and holds the USAF highest classification (CAT III) for diplomatic work in international relations and training for allied nations supporting foreign military sales and the USAF security assistance mission.

Dr. Romie N. Richardson

Senior Consulting Partner; Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Richardson is one of the best known and well respected Flight Surgeons in the USAF. He has acted as primary physician for numerous operational flight units within the USAF and NASA. He has commanded several units including the Residency of Aerospace Medicine for the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, whose key focus was research and training of physician candidates for the aerospace medical profession. His most recent appointment was as director of the Kelsey-Seybold clinic at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Dr. Richardson is a recognized expert in Spatial Disorientation and Motion Sickness in the high motion provocative military and space flight environments. As the former Director of the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine Residency — the largest, most respected Residency of Aerospace Medicine in the World — he graduated a record number of 79 residents from Aerospace Medicine. It was during this assignment that he volunteered and was chosen to take the first USAF hospital into Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom, service for which he was awarded the Bronze Star. After 26 years in the USAF, Dr. Richardson retired when he was offered the position of Program Director by the Kelsey-Seybold Clinics of Houston to run their medical services at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. He ran a $120M contract that involved providing all medical services, not only at JSC but also in Moscow, Russia and in White Sand, NM for NASA and civil servants. Dr. Richardson is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association and the American College of Preventive Medicine.

General John Corley, Four Star General, (USAF, Ret)

General Corley is a previous 4-Star commander of Air Combat Command (ACC), the world’s largest operational aerospace combat training organization and the Air Component Commander for U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM). Gen Corely is invaluable in facilitating collaborations with the USAF and allied Combat Air Forces.

General William Looney III, Four Star General, (USAF, Ret)

General Looney is a previous commander of AETC with over 36 years of USAF service. Career fighter pilot and combat veteran actively involved in aviation/aerospace consulting throughout the United States and abroad. Gen Looney is invaluable in facilitating collaborations with the USAF and allied nations’ technical and flight training programs.

Mr. David Blankenship

Mr. Blankenship is the President and Director of Oklahoma National Bank; former President of the Air Force Association, well connected with members of Congress and high ranking leadership in prospective customer entities. He is a valuable mentor on business development and facilitates important connectivity in the public sector.

Mr. Gentner Drummond

Mr. Drummond is a USAF veteran and former F-15 Eagle pilot and the owner of the Drummond Law Firm in Tulsa, OK. He is currently serving as the Attorney General of Oklahoma. He is a well known and well respected entrepreneur with expertise in banking, telecommunications, oil and gas, real estate and of course, corporate law. Mr. Drummond serves as a key advisor and business mentor to Argent Technologies, LLC and its staff and serves as legal representation.

Dr. Fred Bonato

Dr. Bonato is Director, Office of Faculty Research and Sponsored Programs, Saint Peter’s College, reporting directly to the Provost and handling the submission and processing of all government grant applications for the College. He is the Chair of the Department of Psychology and Executive Officer, Eastern Psychological Association, the largest and oldest regional psychology association in the United States. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief, Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine (ASEM), the official journal of the Aerospace Medical Association. ASEM is a monthly peer-reviewed journal. Dr. Bonato reviews our grant submissions, research processes and is our senior SME for Human Factors and Human Systems integration and acts as primary liaison for all collaborations with academic and research institutions.

Rick Evans

Sr. Consultant
Human Factors Engineering, Human Systems Integration

Rick is an exacting researcher with major government contractors bringing precision, operational relevance, and aerospace physiology context to protocol development, data collection and results application. He was a key researcher for USAF Air Force Research Laboratory/Joint Cockpit Office in assessing and developing cockpit instrumentation layout/primary and standby flight symbology for head-up, head-down and head/helmet-mounted displays. He boasts eleven years applied experience in human factors research, design & evaluation of cockpit instrumentation symbology and layout, spatial disorientation (SD) countermeasures, and aerospace physiology/human performance enhancement. He is a recognized expert in the development of test scenarios for flight simulator utilization, and participant preparation for research studies on optimum SD countermeasures training equipment and effects of sleep deprivation on SD manifestation. Rick is a military and commercial pilot with vast experience and perspectives on avionics, flight controls, missions and flight environments and was key in assessing and recommending improvements to or waivers for primary flight displays of B-1, C-5B, C12, C-40B, C-130, C-135 Speckled Trout, F-35, F-15E, T-38C, and U-2 aircraft, as well as Global Hawk and Predator uninhabited aerospace vehicles. He was the primary advisor to USAF Joint Cockpit Office for display approval. He has served as Director/developer/instructor, Human Performance and Mishap Investigation Courses; taught situational awareness, spatial disorientation countermeasures and human factors management at USAF School of Aerospace Medicine.

David E Grilley

Sr. Consultant
Unmanned Aerial Systems R&D, Information Operations

Dave is a retired USAF F-16 fighter and trainer pilot who served as the Chief of Combat Applications, USAF UAV Battle Lab. There he created, conducted and supervised UAS demonstrations to expand their roles and capabilities. Involved in evaluating see-and-avoid concepts, a cooperative UAS/F-16 capability for the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) mission, and integrating UAS imagery into JSTARS, AWACS, Rivet Joint, and MC2C reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft.

Dave Grilley (“Grizz”) is known throughout the public and private sectors as the “go to” guy for every aspect of UAS operations. He has vast expertise in all facets of UAS from systems and platform design, to systems integration, operational use and business modeling. Grizz is a Senior Consultant with more than ten years experience in technical management of operations, training, C4ISR, and unmanned aircraft programs for USAF, AFRL, Army, DARPA, OSD and NAVAIR. Grizz is an Innovative, independent thinker able to analyze extremely complex sets of requirements into relevant Joint, or Service, ISR operations. He has served as the Director of Alion Science Center for Intelligent Control. He directed the successful execution of the Naval Air Warfare Center’s Swarm program, a $20 Million dollar award to develop autonomous, cooperative behavior between large numbers of UAS supervised by a single pilot. He was Project Manager for DARPA Counter UAS Study, and Florida DOT study to use UAS for highway monitoring. Dave was extensively involved with the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration in efforts to develop the regulatory infrastructure governing future unmanned aviation. He participated in Joint Planning Development Office “Next Generation Airspace” studies and advised DHS’ Border and Transportation Security Research and Development Office on UAS employment concepts and integration. He wrote the UAS Concept of Operations currently used by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

Pamela Murray

Sr. Consultant
Network and Telecommunications Systems

Pam holds a master of management degree from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and is a certified Program Management Professional. She has been a senior consultant, program manager and technology development team leader in the field of internet based communications and telephony for such industry giants as ARINC, Cisco Systems, DigitalNet Government Solutions, Dynaxis, Digicon Corporation, Raytheon, Twisted Pair, Waypoint Communications and a host of others.

Pamela led and managed nationwide telecommunications interoperability projects for ARINC in the Public Safety, Emergency Management, and State and Local markets focused on ARINC’s AWINS solution that included Cisco’s IPICS and Twisted Pair Solution’s WAVE application. She provided program management, consulting, and strategic alliance support to the newly formed partnership between Raytheon JPS Communications and Cisco Systems to deliver integrated solution for communications interoperability. In addition to being a senior consulting partner for Argent Technologies, LLC for IT and network based communications projects; Pamela currently provides program management support to the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) at the US Department of the Treasury. She manages key CNC personnel in the creation and execution of the OCIO Program Management Office (PMO) for Infrastructure Operations.

Pam’s experience, expertise and extensive connectivity throughout the IT industry give us global reach and a first class capability in this growing field while maintaining a low overhead and small footprint.

Pat Percich

Sr. Consultant
US Government Programs, Technical Writer/Editor,
Contracting Specialist

Pat has over 30 years of experience in technical editing/writing of scientific and engineering publications prepared for an array of government agencies including NIH, NASA, NOAA, USAF, US Army, and the Departments of Education and Labor. She holds a bachelor’s degree in technical management from the University of Maryland. She has been a senior consultant and proposal coordinator/manager on projects for 8a, woman-owned, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses as well as large defense industry contractors.

Pat has extensive experience in IT and telecommunication supporting cutting-edge technologies and small business startups. She has written and produced technical documentation, installation guides, and user manuals for a variety of proprietary software applications for both commercial and government clients to include a nationwide transmission/scheduling/billing system for National Public Radio (NPR) as well as financial and business management systems for the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), US Post Office, and USAID. She produced and maintained developer and end-user documentation for MICROS System’s RES 3700 Point-of-Sale (POS) software system, an integrated sales management network application for the hospitality industry with distribution worldwide. Her work documented continued development of multi-tiered interfaces, customized back office applications, Enterprise Management modules, Credit Card Drivers (UCCD, NaBANCO, NaBANCO NB, CMS, CES, AAFES, BuyPass, BCFerries, Tender Retail, STC, PMS), and a host of related products, peripherals, and utilities. Before MICROS, she was the lead technical writer/software tester for SnareNet, a ground-breaking internet security company developing low-cost, peer-to-peer encryption software for network access to workstations and servers. She has developed and implemented content management for IOS-based smartphone system and has designed, developed, and programmed corporate websites. Pat’s technical writing skills and expertise brings a strong voice to Argent’s marketing and business ventures.

In Memoriam: It is with great regret Argent Technologies, LLC announces the passing Mr. Tom Prescott. He was an outstanding aerospace engineer with unique and cutting edge ideas, a guy who really thought outside of the box. The owner of many patents and proprietary properties, his shoes will be hard to fill. More importantly, Tom was a longtime friend and confidante, coworker and partner and he will be sorely missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones. Enjoy the big skies my Friend.

Tom Prescott

Sr. Consultant
Aerospace Engineering, Composites,
Manufacturing Process Analysis & Design

Tom is a lifelong aerospace engineer, and accomplished businessman in the aerospace industry. After serving on the Department of Aerospace Engineering Faculty at the University of Arizona, Mr. Prescott held increasing levels of responsibility as an aerospace engineer in industry at Sikorsky, Piper, Learjet, Beechcraft, and Gulfstream, before founding Prescott Products Corporation (“PPC”). PPC built Manned Optional and Unmanned Aerial Systems and conducted aerospace research and development under contract for various industry large prime contractors and U.S. governmental institutions. Tom is an expert in the complex field of composite building materials and holds several patents on “out of autoclave composite materials” suitable for a myriad of defense and private sector uses. Mr. Prescott leads AT, LLC engineering efforts, and advises the firm on engineering related decisions, oversees systems integration projects, final production prototype development, production line assembly techniques, and develops quality assurance and product improvement processes. He is currently developing an innovative light sport aircraft and preparing to have his general aviation aircraft the “Prescott Pusher” certified in the US as a high performance low cost, utility category aircraft offering.

Bob D’Amore

Sr. Consultant
Healthcare Administration, Medical Response to Disasters,
and Medical Readiness Planning

Bob has more than 45 years in the healthcare administration arena, both civilian and military, and is a retired USAF Medical Service Corps officer. He holds a master’s degree in health care administration, has 30 post-graduate hours in public health, and has attended many civilian and military courses and programs in medical readiness and medical disaster operations. Prior to his Air Force career, Bob worked in strategic planning at Georgetown University Hospital, in the department of community medicine at the University Hospital of Jacksonville (Florida), and at Hadley Memorial Hospital in Washington DC, where he started a hospital-based medical group practice program. He was also the Director of Emergency Services for Orange County NC.

During his AF career, and in addition to his primary career track in medical readiness, Bob was an associate hospital administrator, a medical squadron commander, a medical clinic commander, a deputy medical support group commander, and even served a tour as a Wing Inspector General. Bob has significant medical planning and medical disaster response experience, having been involved in the on-the-ground responses to several major disasters and served as the senior AF medical officer in Afghanistan early in OEF. Bob is a current member of a US Health and Human Services (HHS) Incident Management Team.

Pamela Patton

Sr. Consultant
Contracts, Program Management, & Manning

Ms. Patton has over 16 years of experience as a Senior Medical and Dental Recruiter and 20 years in Office Management.

Prior to working at Argent Technologies, LLC, Pamela worked for two large defense contracting companies as the Lead Recruiter under contracts with MEDCOM and DENTCOM and has a proven success fill rate of 98% in hospital and clinical environments. She has also worked in the commercial sector, staffing and managing Occupational and Physical Therapists and their assistants.

Pamela’s attributes include, marketing, sourcing, recruiting and staffing medical, dental and allied healthcare professionals. She is also proficient in Program Management, planning and implementation of policies and procedures and managing departments within the organizations she has worked for.

Ms. Patton currently provides Vendor/Client Relations, Marketing, Recruiting, Staffing, and Management of staff.

Dea Mikeworth

Director of IT

Dea entered the workforce during the Dot-Com Boom of the mid-1990s. Her initial career in journalism quickly moved into the realms of website development, internet protocol, programming, coding and server maintenance to fill a need that established journalists could not fill. She learned her first programming language – BASIC – as a child and has continued to foster a love of computers throughout her life. These skills became highly sought-after as internet commerce quickly grew during the late 90s.

Dea left journalism in 2001 to become an Army wife and mother of two boys. Five years later – children in school and combat-injured husband on the mend – she was asked to take over the website for a non-profit organization. This first volunteer postion quickly grew into a small website development business that she could run from home, while still caring for her family.

In 2011, she was brought onto the Argent Tech Team by Ron Schaefer. Since then, she has been responsible for the development of the AT website, as well as IT and technical support for the AT staff.